Best filesystem for cross platform

[UKMuFFiN]

Whats the best filesystem for use with windows and linux and mac os (in case I do eventually get one). Ive been using a FAT32 drive that I used to keep everything on and coould read/write to with linux and windows but it was annoying sometimes with the 4GB file size limit. Is there a better solution?

Looking at NAS and I saw the Western Digital Netcentre uses the Comon Internet File System "For platform independant file sharing" So is this a possibility?

Cheers.

[Funkstar]

if you are moving the drive around and connecting it directly to different systems, FAT32 is still your best bet unfortunitely.

If you are connecting to a NAS box, the drive in there can be any file system the box can handle as the OS you are using does not see the file system directly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIFS
CIFS = SMB
"Server Message Block (SMB) is a application-level network protocol mainly applied to share files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an authenticated Inter-process communication mechanism. It is mainly used by Microsoft Windows equipped computers."

Thats what all NAS boxes be basically, just WD have turned it into marketing spin.

[UKMuFFiN]

The way I had it before was a big fat32 drive where I kept all my data and another drive split with windows and linux, I don't think I want to go down the NAS route yet. I couldn't get CIFS/SMB on the data drive? Is that because CIFS/SMB is a protocol rather than an actual file system like FAT32 and so you need software running on the drive to use CIFS/SMB?

[directhex]

I couldn't get CIFS/SMB on the data drive?

nope.

Is that because CIFS/SMB is a protocol rather than an actual file system like FAT32 and so you need software running on the drive to use CIFS/SMB?

precisely.

FAT32 is the only FS you can write to from Windows and Linux and MacOS for free.
You can write to NTFS from Windows and Linux, but only read on MacOS
You can write to HFS+ from MacOS and Linux, but need £50 if software on Windows
You can write to EXT3 on Linux, but only read on MacOS or Windows